Monthly Archives December 2013

You think actors like to shout with their voices? That’s nothing compared with what they like to do with their faces. Half the time you can’t understand what they’re saying because their faces are screaming at you. And not only do they like their facial expressions to overwhelm the lines they’re speaking (so much for trusting the writer and trusting the writing), their facial expressions are competing with each other. The eyebrows are jumping up and down like worms on crack. Their eyeballs move around in their sockets like a ventriloquist’s dummy. Their mouths contort in the most unattractive waysRead More

Over-the-top doesn’t mean you’re making a big choice. It means your acting is flowing over the top of the glass, spilling all over the table, and running into our laps, which makes us want to jump out of our chair screeching and then grab something to clean ourselves off. And we don’t keep ordering the same drink, if every time someone serves it to us it’s making a mess. We order a different drink or maybe patronize a different establishment all together. Over-the-top is the last resort of the unimaginative. Scratch that. It’s the first resort of the unimaginative. TheyRead More

Actors should mind their own business. They’re always sticking their noses into their characters’ problems, trying to solve everything. They want characters to understand each other and get along and forgive each other and bond and they’re never happy until all the characters in a story come together and hug. They’re a cult of “huggers” and if they had their way we’d all be drinking the kool-aid. They’re very cunning about it. They start with their characters but once they’ve brought their characters over to the “light side” they try to hypnotize the audience into wanting to be nicer toRead More

And there’ll be lots of hills and speed bumps and winding roads, so hold on tight. With both hands. And the actor will be inflecting through the entire line, in order to make the ride more interesting, and emphasizing a lot of words to make sure you know how important those words are. So pay attention. Oh and there’ll be lots of stops along the way so you might want to bring a good book. Don’t ask me what the line is or what it means and don’t bother trying to figure it out for yourself. First of all, withRead More

It’s better to be wrong and interesting rather than right and boring. The only filmmakers who want you to come into an audition and get the scene “right” are student filmmakers or otherwise amateurs. And if you find yourself auditioning for a filmmaker that’s directing you to play the scene the “right” way or “as it’s written” you damn well better know what you’re doing because they don’t. You’ll never “pop” under their direction. But that’s what actors do because they think we want to see the scene played “right”. What we want to see is whether you know whatRead More